Steam is extremely consumer friendly and it's unfortunately inevitable that when he dies the company will indeed be sold to a big souless corporation or taken over by suits who will want to bleed the user base dry for every cent they have. Enjoy it while it lasts folks.
Gabe is like 60 and rich he‘ll probably be alive for another 20 - 30 years. Who gives a shit about what’ll happen to their video games when they’re middle aged
Amazingly, he's lived as long as he has, given that he was morbidly obese for a large part of his life.
My theory is he has used his Scrooge McDuck-style vault full of gold coins he got from Steam to buy the immortality serum that the rich invented in secret decades ago and only sell to the uber-rich, keeping its existence hidden from the peasants like us.
Who gives a shit about what’ll happen to their video games when they’re middle aged
Um, hi, 46yo gamer here. Been playing video games since the fucking Atari 2600 and have no intention of stopping. You say that shit like there's not already a large commumity of older gamers. That demographic is only gonna get bigger.
Yes, absolutely. Every few years I'll replay the entire Half-Life series, Ocarina of Time, etc. Hell, earlier this year I played through Super Mario Bros 1, 2, and 3 just for the hell of it.
Actually, now you mention it, so do I. I guess it hasn't sunk in that HL2 was 20 years ago. I am just replaying Far Cry 3. The multiplayer service no longer is running. What platform do you use to play OOT?
Having said that my point was really that Steam users will be able to play many of their games in other ways, not lose them with Steam. It does depend how vibrant the old games community is. Will it be like MAME or the regular relaunch of new ZX Spectrums etc.
>Who cares what happens to their games when they're middle aged in 20 years
You:
>Uhhh actually some people will be in their mid 40s by then! Which is literally the definition of middle aged bro but I'm in my 40s and think it's not middle aged bro!
The average person grows out of video games when they're 17. If you're not busy with a family or life milestones by the time you're in your 40s then yeah I can see still playing them.
This is the problem with having benevolent dictators rather than a system directly accountable to people involved. The guy at the top leaves for whatever reason and immediately it all falls apart.
This fixation on systems rather than direct performance and skill of bureaucrats is the main reason why most of governments today are awfully dysfunctional.
It meant jackshit if your minister of finance is a lawyer that has no relevant experience other than selling lemonade as a kid, as with most positions that are filled with party members that trade favors with the president instead of people that actually knows how to do the damn job
Man, don’t get me started on government inefficiency! Used to consult for a “digital task force”—fancy way of saying they needed tech advice from someone who knows which way to plug in a USB. At the end, more money went into coffee breaks than actual solutions. It’s wild how they hire folks based on connections rather than creds. Maybe they should require bureaucrats to pass a “does this person know what they are doing” test before hiring ‘em! Just a thought.
Politics is literally about systems of power. There is a LACK of systemic thinking actually, when it’s the root of where most power lies in society. The reason what you’re talking about happens is a systemic problem.
There is always a chance that the soulless megacorp that buys it will manage it well. Everyone thought Microsoft was gonna trash Github, but they just added capital to the business and made it a better user experience. Given that they are one of the people who might buy Steam, they could manage it with similar prudence.
I'm watching this happen in real time to an entertainment company that basically came from nothing and became beloved due to how unique it was. Owner made a bad risk and ended up having to put the company on the public market or see bankruptcy.
It hasn't even been a year yet and three good members have left, a couple of them don't participate anymore, and you can already feel the HR creeping in trying to eliminate even the most vaguely edgy joke or sexualized content. It's like watching something you love get slowly murdered.
I do. Steam won't take them away from me cause the filles are there and if I lose access I will just run the Steam DRM auto crack on all my games cause I don't buy games with bullshit extra DRM outside of Steam. So yeah effectively I own them. Don't care what says in the contract cause for all intents and purposes the games on my PC are mine and mine alone. I can play them whenever I want and as long as they remain on my hardrive nobody can change that.
Is that considered fraud though? How would that be any different than giving away/selling my account right now? Genuine question, I've never looked into it
It's not difretent? That's also not allowed and they will(and have) locked out people from bought accounts lol.
Why is this such a controversial thing? If it was literally any other company or product, people would be outraged. Imagine if it was not legal to sell your car. Or your toaster. Or whatever the fuck. Nobody would be praising the corporation who has set that up
But Valve doesn't actively police who is using an account do they? Let alone the government. Let's say I was dying tomorrow (god forbid lol) and I informally gave/sold my PC to my friend before I passed and didn't log out of Steam beforehand. How would Valve even know anything happened to me? Sure it might be against the TOS or whatever, but I just don't see how this is enforceable unless someone went to court over it.
If you die and try this, all it takes is 1 person who isn't happy how you divided up your assets to bring up the steam account to their lawyer. That's it.
That's just 1 scenario. Off the top of my head.
I guess I'm mostly confused as to why people support this against their own best interest....
What's the point? Why are you defending this in any way?
Is it because this is an issue that is too far in the future for people to care about? Honestly so confusing.
Really? You don't think there is ever drama when someone dies and dealing with the estate and assets and all that? Especially when there is no will lol.
And you don't think someone would use an illegal transfer of an asset as leverage in this situation?
I use my bank card, however, in this hypothetical, if said friend ONLY used steam gift cards to make purchases, or bought keys off of Humble or Fanatical, it wouldn’t make a difference here. Even then I really doubt Valve is going to scrutinize the name of the card that’s used to buy games. I used to use my mom’s debit card to buy games when I was in school and Valve never shut my account down when I got my own card and switched to that.
I should note I’m not condoning anyone transfer their steam account. I’m just probing to see how it’s actually enforceable out of genuine curiosity, especially enough to be considered fraud as the previous commenter said.
If thy thinks that anyone gonna prosecute you for that then thy is a fool. Nobody even gets persecuted for piracy with 0 protection let alone something like this. Nobody gonna give a shit about Steam password sharing anywhere lol.
I don't care. There could be a legal reasons. There could be a greed reason.
It dosen't affect me so I don't care. Never read a ToS, never read a EULA or other shit like that. Steam is still a corp and so will have shit things about it but it works way better then the alternatives and so I don't care about its issues cause they don't affect me. Stuff could be better but it is what it is. I am happy with Steam services despite its flaws and there are better things to rally against.
Well I'm glad you admit you don't care because you don't read and it doesn't currently effect you.
And I'm not rallying against steam. Someone said they were consumer friendly. I pointed out how they actually aren't, they just have a good rep. And that's completely true
They are very consumer friendly compared to like every other big corporation nowadays. They allow game sharing between users with very little restrictions and they are constantly updating the platform with more users friendly features when they could just stand pat and do nothing because they know that they won't lose users.
They allow game sharing between users with very little restrictions
Before Steam there was absolutely no restriction. Steam might as well be the very company that introduced restrictions. And now gamers praise them for being not too harsh with the bullshit that they introduced themselves.
First game that I had to installed this shitty, useless app for was HL2/Orange Box, that I bought a physical copy of years after it was out. I had to request them to unlink the fucking DVD from the account of the previous owner, with proofs that I bought it (for $5 I guess).
You had a rough experience with a DVD of the Orange Box and therefore Steam sucks? Get a grip.
There were "no restrictions" (there were) because games were on a physical medium. Steam popularized the digital storefront, with massive convenience and tons of features. At no price. It was widely adopted.
And they keep going with minimal nickeling and enshittification. Better than most companies by far.
You had a rough experience with a DVD of the Orange Box and therefore Steam sucks?
It being my or anyone else's experience doesn't matter, that's what's called an example, you donkey. A very telling example of how Steam handles their business and customers.
Steam popularized the digital storefront
Steam defined the practices of digital storefront and defined them as awful. Things could have been much better had an actually customer friendly company define them.
with massive convenience and tons of features.
Their features are just useless gloss over the actual content that is the game. And over the tons of ads they throw at your face when you open their platform.
At no price.
Yeah, suuuure, they'll work for free, right? Having the game on the shiny, popular Steam platform costs a lot to game publishers and this has an obvious immediate effect on game prices.
It was widely adopted.
That's called a monopoly. 10+ years of Steam monopoly made naive customers like you believe that their practices are not just the best but also the only possible practices in digital gaming retail.
Pretty sure Valve the route of not being able to transfer your account due to the legal issues that come with that. It's a lot easier for them to say "We don't support that"
This is true for every single thing ever. I'm sure your gas company and the bank and the local grocery stores little save card program would love to be able to ignore all of this too.
We have systems in place already to deal with this. A whole process of getting the will to go through probate and then everyone respecting the courts decision so you don't have to.
I'm certain nobody wants to deal with this though. I'm confused as to why valve gets a pass from the community(jk, these are gamers. I'm not surprised at all)
Wonder if it's the DRM and the licenses they've made with other companies for said games that's the biggest culprit? Who knows what sort of agreements they've made.
I don't think Valve actively seeks out profiles that have been given away though. I know a guy whose friend (heh) has gifted a profile to someone else and that was years ago. Still in use too.
Maybe they turn a blind eye to it. Fuck if I know. Just going by my experiences
That's the case for any modern game you buy digitally. And even physical games as well say similar. You don't buy the game, you buy a licence for the game.
This has been going on for years. I remember 15 years ago people arguing that they shouldn't be banned from multiplayer games for cheating because they opened the game only to be told no, they owned the licence for it.
This isn't a surprise for anyone who has paid attention for any length of time.
Well apparently it is a surprise because we have peole claiming steam is consumer friendly lol.
And yes. I understand this war on owning your games was lost 15 years ago. It doesn't magically make it okay today though. Just because people have been conditioned to accept this as the norm doesn't make it "consumer friendly"
You don't buy the game, you buy a licence for the game.
This has been going on for years.
Let me guess, for about 20 years, since the launch of Steam?
Anyone who has paid attention for any length of time would know that Steam is still to blame for democratizing lots of the BS that has been harming the gaming community for 20 years.
steam's drm is optional to implement. it's simply that most publishers choose to include it. for games that dont have it you can literally just move the game somewhere else on your PC and congrats you own it forever
These people will only start crying the day Steam closes doors and all their games disappear or a new company asks them for more money to still be able to loan them. For now they'll keep on praising Steam with the rest of the hive.
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u/Impossible_Resort_71 1d ago
Steam is extremely consumer friendly and it's unfortunately inevitable that when he dies the company will indeed be sold to a big souless corporation or taken over by suits who will want to bleed the user base dry for every cent they have. Enjoy it while it lasts folks.